D-Blog Day!

D-Blog day is important! It is time to educate, listen up. D-Blog day is a chance for me to say the six things I want you to know most about diabetes.

No matter how much I exercise, I still have to take insulin... This may be my biggest diabetes pet-peeve. People with type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease, must always take insulin. We need this to stay alive. It is not a cure. NOT A CURE!! No matter how many HOURS a day I exercise, I still have to have insulin...

There are different types of diabetes...I have type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease. My sixth chromosome is altered, this gives me the genetic predisposition to develop type 1 diabetes. I did. There is nothing I did to cause type 1 diabetes, there was nothing I could do to prevent it. Here I am.

The Diabetes Online Community is strong...We have loud voices. We will write stand up for what we believe in and we rally around each other when there is sadness.

We are trying to find a CURE...and we are serious about it!

No matter how hard I try, things still go wrong...I spend a lot of time on my diabetes care. No matter how hard I try, I still have random highs and lows. Technology is making things better, but things still happen.

Don't feel sorry for us...We want you to be educated, but don't feel bad for us, we are strong and determined.

Hope is in the CURE!

Raw.

I have read all of the posts about The Onion article. Kelly's broke my heart. I felt every word she wrote.

I have not lost a child to diabetes. I cannot relate to the feelings these parents express. However, I know how I feel. I know that when I crawl in to bed at night and my blood sugar is around 100, I am scared.

What if I don't wake up?

My husband is traveling 80% of the time...I am extremely independent. My diabetes care has always been MY diabetes care. The lingering thought in my mind is...

It doesn't matter. Why not?

Because it doesn't.

Doing everything right does not guarantee I will wake up in the morning.

It doesn't guarantee I will not have highs that make my mind blank and my words slip and my college education appear to not exist as I am in a meeting that I must lead. My insulin pump cannot keep up with my nerves and my blood sugar will continue to climb. Just like it did when I took the GRE for graduate school and my blood sugar stayed above 400 the entire time. My mouth will be dry, my teeth will be fuzzy, and I will be tired. I WILL have that high and it will sneak up on me and I will deal with it.

It doesn't guarantee that I will not have a 3:00 am low that makes me terrified to sleep too heavily. A low that makes my brain shut down, my entire body sweat and my heart ache. It doesn't mean that I will not wander around the lawn of a university I am presenting at, not remembering where I am going or why I am there, until I sit down on a park bench and cry. It doesn't guarantee I won't still feel the hot tears of embarrassment from years ago as I cannot tell the flight attendant that I am too low to speak. That I am about to faint and cannot form the words that I have type 1 diabetes and I need sugar. I WILL have that low and I will deal with it.

Why?

Because I have to.

I cannot blame The Onion for my disease. I cannot blame them for satire. I read The Onion every day and I will probably continue to. But, I can't say I am not emotionally overwhelmed right now, as many of you are, because this is so raw to us.

As I sit at my desk and feel the tears fall on to my keyboard. I know that I will get up again tomorrow and do the same thing. I will deal with this disease.

Why?

Because I don't have any other options.

Be a Part of the CURE!

It is not a secret that I work for JDRF. Before I was on staff, I volunteered for JDRF. I have also volunteered for ADA and any other organization that is working on my CURE.

I don't know about you, but I am tired.

I am tired of having type 1.

Tired.

I am tired of lows.

Tired.

Tired of highs.

Tired.

Tired of it all...

It is important that I be a part of the cure

It is important to me that you are too.

Click Here and Make a DIFFERENCE.